Shanghai is holding its 18th annual international film festival beginning on Saturday and has invited movie luminaries from around the world to attend.

But for those coming from South Korea, organizers have suggested they might consider other plans.

The Shanghai International Film Festival’s organizing committee sent an email to South Korean attendees on Wednesday, suggesting that they cancel their trips following an outbreak of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome there. Read More »

China’s 2,600-year-old salt monopoly is proving hard to get rid of. Equally entrenched is the parallel industry of salt smugglers the monopoly has created.

Used in ancient times to raise government revenue, China’s modern-day salt monopoly exists to serve a public health function: by adding iodine to table salt, the state-sanctioned salt industry has helped radically reduce the occurrence of goiter and brain development problems associated with iodine deficiency.

Moreover, in an environment where scandals regularly taint China’s food industry, the table salt industry defends its monopoly rights by promising consumers peace of mind and vouching for the safety of its product. Read More »

The disappearance of a Chinese newspaper report on the ship that sank in the Yangtze River with hundreds aboard last week has added to speculation over what caused China’s worst nautical disaster in nearly seven decades.

The report in the Beijing News, a leading commercial newspaper in the Chinese capital, said the Eastern Star had received retrofits that made the vessel less safe. “Changes to the ship’s structure and additions to its length made it less stable, and increased the risk of capsize,” the report said, citing company officials and ship inspectors that it didn’t name. It also alleged that the ship’s owner maintained “special” ties with local shipping inspectors, particularly during the periods when the vessel was constructed and retrofitted. Read More »

It’s been one week since Beijing’s new ban on indoor smoking went into effect, with authorities pledging a tough new approach in a city where 23 percent of the population smokes.

A report Monday by the state-run China Daily newspaper stated that one in three public venues has already violated the ban, which applies to restaurants, schools, bars and other indoor locations. Among those receiving warnings from public health officials during inspection tours last week were 15 hospitals and more than 280 individuals, according to the newspaper, with 60% of restaurants breaking the ban.

So how do residents feel about the new policy? Do they think it will succeed? China Real Time took to the streets of Beijing to find out. Read More »

Nearly a week after a cruise ship sank near this Yangtze River city, Chen Suhua presumes her husband is among the hundreds dead. Now the elderly retiree is frustrated by a wait to see his body.

Several times in the past few days, Ms. Chen has asked to see the remains of her husband, Zhang Guangren, only to be put off by officials. “I want to see his body,” said the 73-year-old retired native of Nanjing city, who now lives in the U.S. “I don’t care about money or anything else.” Read More »

The last known video image of the Eastern Star before it turned over in the choppy waters of the Yangtze River on Monday shows it powering ahead as lightning cracks through the nighttime sky.

The government has kept a tight grip on information about what happened next and many questions remain about the tragic sequence of events that followed. However, satellite data, interviews with experts and a handful of survivor accounts in Chinese state media—including partial accounts from the captain and chief engineer released Friday—begin to paint a picture. Read More »

Moments after officials in Jianli, Hubei province, closed a news briefing on efforts to recover missing cruise-ship passengers, an elderly woman burst into the room.

“I’m a relative of victims!” she yelled, turning the heads of the two-dozen officials and journalists present. “I should have every right to attend these news briefings. Yet you only give information to reporters, outsiders!”

Friday’s outburst from 70-year-old Xia Yunchen, whose sister and brother-in-law were among the 456 people aboard the ill-fated Eastern Star, earned her an impromptu soapbox to criticize the government’s response to one of China’s worst maritime disasters. Read More »

The captain at the helm of the Chinese tour ship that sank this week with hundreds aboard was a respected veteran of those waters, a co-worker and official media said, and his wife was on board when it capsized.

Zhang Shunwen, 52 years old, has been in police custody since Tuesday, just hours after the Eastern Star capsized in the storm-struck waters of the Yangtze River in central China on Monday night. The death toll as of Friday stood at 82, according to the official China Central Television. Only 14 survivors have been found, and on Friday authorities turned the ship over, in a tacit acknowledgment that they believe the rest of the 456 passengers and crew are dead. Read More »

A search for survivors on the Yangtze River has turned into a recovery operation, as Chinese officials acknowledged that hundreds of cruise passengers had died in what is likely the country’s worst maritime disaster in 65 years.

Authorities on Friday morning said they had righted the capsized cruise ship, the Eastern Star, signaling that they had given up on finding any more survivors. Read More »

About China Real Time Report

China Real Time Report is a vital resource for an expanding global community trying to keep up with a country changing minute by minute. The site offers quick insight and sharp analysis from the wide network of Dow Jones reporters across Greater China, including Dow Jones Newswires’ specialists and The Wall Street Journal’s award-winning team. It also draws on the insights of commentators close to the hot topic of the day in law, policy, economics and culture. Its editors can be reached at chinarealtime@wsj.com.